About Us

The Division of Workforce Development (DWD) provides leadership for recruiting, training, developing and retaining the nation’s public health workforce. In this role, we chart a path forward at all levels of the public health system.

• Prospective public health professionals: We establish and advance innovative experiential fellowship, internship, and training opportunities that are both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.
• Current public health professionals: We offer and promote quality training opportunities from CDC, other federal agencies, and federally funded partners.
• Health departments and public health partners: We provide capacity building and technical assistance, support and lead efforts to build the evidence-base for public health workforce planning and development at the national level, and collaborate with partners to address workforce priorities.
• CDC programs: We ensure efforts are coordinated and strategic agency-wide.

Who We Are

Meet our Director: Patricia M. Simone, MD

Education and Training Services Branch

Chief: Gabrielle (Gaby) Benenson, MPH

• Helps CDC programs and partners get quality, accredited training activities to the public health workforce
• Designs, accredits, promotes, and delivers learning opportunities for health professionals to improve health

Epidemiology and Workforce Branch

Chief: Eric Pevzner, PhD, MPH

• Provides applied training and service programs for future and current public health professionals
• Focus areas: Epidemiology and laboratory science

Population Health Workforce Branch

Chief: Kyle T Bernstein, PhD ScM

• Provides experiential service-learning opportunities for fellows and training in place opportunities for the existing workforce
• Focus areas: Data science and applied public health sciences

Connect With Us

Have a question about fellowships, training services, or other public health workforce development activities? Ask us.